


I Don't Feel Like Dancin'

by saggiclowns



Series: Stuck Between You and Me [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Non-Binary Author, Other, Parenthood, Polyamory, broad strokes canon, non-binary duke devlin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21641140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saggiclowns/pseuds/saggiclowns
Summary: Seven year old Rebecca Hawkins is home sick from school on what starts out as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad rainy day. Armed with embarrassing personal home movies and a pair of dancing shoes, Duke does their best to cheer up their daughter.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto/Otogi Ryuuji | Duke Devlin
Series: Stuck Between You and Me [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559926
Comments: 6
Kudos: 4





	I Don't Feel Like Dancin'

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of the brainchild AU created by [Jimmy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegraeyone/pseuds/thegraeyone) and myself which Duke, Seto and Joey are married and parenting an adopted Rebecca Hawkins in the not too distant future. (Plus more kids to be adopted post haste.) The timeline is to be ironed out at a later date, but in this chapter the trio are all around 30 years old and have been together in a polyamorous triad for five years . Duke is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns and is referred to as 'Momo' for their parental name. We're in an experimental phase so many things will be nonlinear snap shots of their lives together spanning Duel Monsters canon days to the broad strokes canon future. Stay tuned!

Rain came down in sheets against the wide sitting room window where Duke sat curled up on the sofa in full cozy day mode. Cozy mode for Duke consisted of the following: sweatpants on, hair tied, no makeup and their legs tucked under an afghan with the glow of their tablet reflecting on their glasses. They’d gotten the blue light filter like Joey suggested on their new pair and it helped alright, but they weren’t really focused enough on the screen in front of them to appreciate the effect. The latest expansion for the Dungeon Dice Monsters mobile app was about to go live and there was still a ton to go over, but the steady beat of rain against the window and the coziness of the dimly lit room was making the mid-morning an exceptionally lazy one.

Normally they would have braved the weather and dragged themself to a coffee shop to post up and actually get some work done but that wouldn’t be an option today. Rebecca had come down with a nasty cold, so they’d need to be home with her until she felt well enough to go back to school. Having a second grader pent up at home during a rainstorm typically called for pillow forts and slime making, but the last time Duke checked on her she was still pretty down so they’d left her to sleep a little while longer before lunch. If anything, Duke was the one going stir crazy.

The house was empty besides Rebecca snoozing down the hall and Duke checking the clock for the hundredth time. Joey was in Chicago all weekend for a tournament and Seto was locked in back to back conferences at KC Headquarters. They’d received a couple of disparaging emojis lamenting Seto’s boredom and Joey had briefly face timed them on his way to the arena, but other than that both husbands were tied up, probably for the remainder of the day and possibly until Seto got home late tonight and Joey flew back in on Monday. 

Duke yawned in an attempt to fight off the looming drowsiness and stretched just in time for their watch to go off. Lunch time, thank god. They set the tablet aside along with their glasses and stood up to pad down the hall to Rebecca’s room and see what she wanted to eat. Even if it was something as plain as chicken noodle soup, it would at least give them something to do. They stopped in front of her pink and teal painted bedroom door collaged with coloring sheets both masterfully scribbled by herself and cautiously filled in by Seto and tapped lightly.

“Becca? Are you awake yet?” They called.

There was no answer, but they could see the little lump that was their daughter bunched up under the covers through the cracked door. The glow of a screen through the Dark Magician Girl themed bedspread and the squelching of Gooigi told them she was feeling well enough to ghost hunt.

“Whatcha doing under there?” Duke tried again.

  
  
“Under where?” Rebecca’s small, glum voice that spookily echoed her father’s sarcasm replied. 

“I made ya say underwear,” They teased. Nothing, not even a giggle. She was clearly in a mood.

Duke slipped through the door and dropped quietly onto their knees to sneak up to the side of the bed. The vrooming sound of the Poltergust 3000 lead them to believe they’d gone undetected and they prepared to pounce, but when they stuck their head up under the covers Rebecca was waiting there with the game idling and an exceptionally cross look on her face, her arms folded in defiance over her chest.

“Hey.” They said. Rebecca only frowned and closed out the game. “You don’t have to stop playing. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

Rebecca shrugged, her lip jutted out in an apparent pout. Duke prepared to adjust their tactics accordingly. They rooted around in the bed and came up with two of Rebecca’s Scapegoat plushes inherited from Joey’s vintage collection. They held one in each hand and turned them to face each other in conversation.

“Sunny, how come Rebecca’s sooo sad?” Duke said in a squeaky voice.

They carried on with the show without looking to Rebecca who still sat with her arms crossed, though they could sense her attention on them as they continued.

“She’s sick, Pinky!” Duke warbled in another tone, bouncing the pink Scapegoat up and down. They shook the yellow scapegoat in response. “She has a cold, and all of the fun came out of her nose with that yucky snot! So now she’s all grumpy. Which means there’s only one thing we can do! Desperate times... Call for desperate measures!”

Rebecca barely had time to react before Duke rained smooches via Scapegoat all over her rounded cheeks and then descended upon her with tickles. Her previous gloom gave way and she burst into shrill laughter and wriggled in Duke’s arms crying out for mercy. They relented and settled back against Rebecca’s mountain of pillows and stuffed animals while she sat cross legged across from them with the yellow Scapegoat cuddled in her lap. Duke picked up its pink twin and hugged it in their own arms.

“Are you cured?” They asked.

“No,” She pouted stubbornly. 

“Are you sad because you didn’t get to go to the talent show?”

“Yes.” Rebecca finally conceded.

Duke nodded solemnly in understanding. They knew Rebecca had been preparing her jump rope routine for the last two weeks, and the sudden onset of a cold had been devastating. It was a disappointment they wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy. Maybe Seto’s worst enemy, Zigfried, but only because he’d let his gang of rowdy daschunds shit all over the garden again last week.

“I know how excited you were, sweetie.” Duke frowned in sympathy. “I bet Mr. Belkin will let you make it up when you go back on Monday, though. Want me to call?”

Rebecca shook her head and her lip started to wibble. Duke would have to proceed with care to avoid an impending meltdown

“How come?” They asked cautiously.

“‘Cuz…” Rebecca mumbled.

“‘Cuz why?”

“Because Marcie Willet said she was gonna do jump rope too! And if I do it on Monday it’s gonna be too late, and everybody’s gonna say I copied her even though _ she _ copied  _ me!” _

Duke reached out their arms and scooped Rebecca into a hug as her words all rushed out and tears welled at the corners of her eyes. She didn’t have to tell them twice about the perils and pitfalls of a fiercely competitive social life. At least in the second grade you didn’t have to worry about cell phone footage of your drunken squabble with Lily Allen in the women’s restroom at Sambuca ending up on TMZ, but being called a copycat when you’re seven probably felt about as bad.

“Well, you know Marcie’s got two left feet and can’t double dutch half as good as you.” Duke offered.

“Yeah. But they’re still gonna say I copied.” Rebecca grumbled, her voice watery with tears.

“You’re probably right.” Duke nodded. They leaned back and pushed the blonde bangs out of Rebecca’s eyes, humming in consideration. “What if… you do something totally different? Something they’ve never seen before that there’s no way Marcie can copy?”

“Like what?” Rebecca asked with a sniff.

“C’mon, I’ve got a plan.” They said, planting a non-Scapegoat smooch on her forehead and hopping up from the bed. “I’ll show you while we eat lunch.”

“Okay,” Rebecca nodded. She scooted towards the edge of the bed and stopped suddenly with her big blue Bambi eyes blinking up at Duke like when she wanted to read one more story.  “Momo?” 

“Mhm?”

“Can I have a piggyback ride downstairs?”

“Of course!” Duke smiled and stooped down so Rebecca could climb on their shoulders. “Hold on spider monkey!”

Rebecca was way too young to get the reference and Seto and Joey weren’t around to appreciate it, but at this point it had become a household phrase all its own. She was rapidly approaching too big for them to comfortably carry for very long so they tried to savor the opportunity before they’d have to outsource all piggybacks to her dads. Duke hoisted Rebecca higher and she clung to their shoulders as they descended the stairs to whip up an appropriately cozy rainy day lunch.

* * *

“That’s  _ you _ , Momo?” Rebecca asked in wonder as she leaned over her half finished bowl of Pasta Puttanesca. She pushed her glasses up to better see the video on the laptop screen. A shoe box and a stack of DVDs sat next to the computer, dug up from Duke’s boxes of memorabilia in the garage.

“Sure is,” Duke nodded. “I was only a little bit younger than you in that one, I think.”

They popped a bit of crostini in their mouth and leaned their elbows on the kitchen island next to her. A grainy old VHS camera recording converted to digital video played in front of them. The footage featured a tap dance recital accompanied by piano, performed by a little curly haired kid on a stage in a cramped auditorium in front of an audience of parents and peers.

“You’re so  _ tiny _ .” Rebecca observed.

“Yup, that was before my growth spurt.” Duke sighed. They poked their fork around in Rebecca’s half eaten and forgotten pasta and gathered up one of many tomatoes that had been left behind. “I grew a whole foot overnight and stayed the same forever, because I didn’t eat my vegetables.”

“Uh huh,” Rebecca said dubiously. Her eyes followed Duke circa 1995 as they tapped rapidly across the stage. “You can’t do that still, though.”

“What makes you think that!” Duke scoffed.

“Cuz you’re old now.” Rebecca shrugged. 

“I’ll have you know I tapped from Naples to Domino to New York City, and that was just last week! Who says I’m old?” Duke cried in what amounted to only semi mock bewilderment. They stood up straight with their hands on their hips, not at all unaware of the irony as their smaller self did the same onscreen. The tapping sounds came to a crescendo and the crowd erupted into applause.

“Poppa.” Rebecca replied nonchalantly, kicking her feet where they hung in mismatched socks under the bar stool seat. Apparently she was in much better spirits now that she had the chance to pick on her Momo. “He said last time you and Daddy went to see him duel you fell asleep and he had to carry you to the car, 'cuz you’re old and can’t stay up late anymore.”

“That is so not true!” Duke said, closing out the video when it reached its end. They discarded Rebecca's leftovers before helping her down so they could clear out the stools. “I walked to the car on my own after I woke up,  _ thank you _ . Besides, that’s rich coming from him. At least I don’t  _ snore  _ like a lawnmower.” 

“Yeah, you’re more like this.” Rebecca said, and she promptly began a series of short snorts and whistles through her nose.

“Is that so!” Duke gasped with mock offense. They paused with their hand on top of the unassuming shoebox waiting on the kitchen counter. “Well, I guess you don’t want to see the second part of Momo’s plan then…”

“No! I’m just kidding, you sound like this.” Rebecca said, and she tilted her head with her eyes closed while making soft sighing noises of calm and polite sleep.

“That’s more like it. Alright, open the box and we’ll get started.”

Duke offered the shoe box to Rebecca and she lifted the lid with an astonished gasp like she’d opened up the briefcase from Pulp Fiction. Her face practically glowed as if she had. Inside there were two pairs of tap shoes, one adult and one child sized. The smaller pair were scuffed beyond belief, while the larger ones were better off.

“These are  _ yours _ ?” Rebecca asked. She reached inside and picked up the smaller shoes, which made Duke feel spectacularly old and gigantic but they looked about right for a tiny human of Rebecca’s size. “Like from the video?”

“Yeah, they’re just like the ones from the video. These are a lot nicer, though. Go ahead and try them on. I wasn’t sure if they would fit but it’s worth a shot.”

Rebecca took the pair of shoes from the box and immediately plopped on the floor to stuff her little feet into them. They were a bit tight, but they would do for now. Duke toed off their house slippers while Rebecca methodically tied the laces of the tiny tap shoes and they quickly pulled on and laced up their own. 

“How do they feel, are they okay?” Duke asked. Rebecca beamed up at them excitedly and tapped her toes on the kitchen floor for good measure.

“Wiggle your ankle around. That’s how we’re gonna stretch. Make sure to bend your knees. There’s no straight legs in tap, you’re always gonna bend your knees.”

“Like this?” Rebecca asked. She stuck her leg out and let her foot flop around, carefully watching and mimicking Duke as they did the same.

“Yup, keep wiggling. Then the other one.” Duke said. They wiggled together for another few seconds. “Alright, excellent wiggling. So now we’re going to learn the very first step of tap. It’s called ‘ball-heel’ and it has two parts.”

“Uh-huh.” Rebecca said. She was still wiggling impatiently but her attention was rapt.

“The first part is the ‘ball-dig’. Keep your knees bent, and ‘dig’ your foot in the ground like you’re marching on your toes. And then you do the same with the other foot.”

“Like this?” Rebecca asked, beginning the first steps.

“Perfect.” Duke nodded. They did the same, marching from left to right. “Keep going, left, right, left…”

Rebecca stepped in time with Duke and soon they reached a steady rhythm. Once Rebecca seemed to have the hang of the step Duke began to pick up their pace which their young pupil quickly matched until they came to a stopping point. 

“Ok good. Now we’re gonna learn part two, the ‘heel-drop’. Pick up your heel — keep your toes on the ground, yup that’s right — and drop it on the ground. And then pick it up and do the other one. And then the other one. And the other one,”

The kitchen soon filled with the rhythmic tapping of their shoes as they stepped in place. It was kind of unbelievable how quick Rebecca picked up the beat, and she was a hell of a lot more coordinated that Duke had been at her age. They tried not to think too hard on it before they risked going full Dance Mom, or rather Dance Momo.

“Awesome, you’re killing it Becca.” They laughed. Sweat had already started to gather on the back of their neck and their knees were definitely bound to be sore tomorrow but they weren’t about to admit it after Rebecca’s ruthless burn from earlier. They did a few more ball-digs before they added the heel drop. “Now put ‘em together, like that.”

The sound of their taps clicking against the tile began to multiply as the steps were combined. This was expectedly more tricky, but they carried on repeating the steps until Duke slowly increased the pace and Rebecca continued to match them. 

“Betcha can’t go as fast as me.” She said suddenly, tapping faster.

“Oh, so it’s like that huh?” Duke scoffed haughtily. They matched her pace and already their breath started to shorten. Getting old was truly hell. “You just try and keep up!”

The two tapped faster and faster while egging each other on. The rapid tapping of their shoes ricocheting around the house and their laughter disguised the sound of the front door opening. Duke was near the point of calling uncle when Rebecca’s taps came to a halt, then clicked frantically across the kitchen floor as she ran and launched herself at Seto’s tall frame filling the doorway.

“Daddy, look! Momo taught me how to tap dance! Look at my shoes!”

Seto hoisted Rebecca up into his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then cast a look of pure knowing mischief at Duke where they leaned against the counter trying and failing to look like they weren’t completely out of breath. Of all the days for him to leave the office early, it had to be the day Duke revealed the deepest and darkest secret of their past. At least he hadn’t walked in on the video.

“Is that so?” He asked in a tone that let Duke know they were never in a million years going to live this down. “I didn’t know Momo could tap. Do you think they have room for one more student?”

“Yeah, it’s open enrollment.” Duke said. They narrowed their eyes at him but crossed with their heels clicking on the floor to tug him down and meet them in a kiss anyway. Rebecca blew a raspberry at them for daring to be what she referred to as  _ smoochy _ in front of her and Duke promptly pinched her cheek teasingly. “But it’ll cost you.”

“Hm, I see. What’s tuition for Momo’s Tap Academy run these days?” Seto asked. 

“Your silence.” They said with only slightly exaggerated graveness.

“Too rich for my blood.” He sighed and looked to Rebecca slyly. “However, I could be convinced with a recital.”

“Yeah!” She said, wriggling as Seto released her back onto the ground. “But only if we can do it like in your video, Momo. The one where you’re all tiny.”

Duke winced as Seto’s smile grew and his eyes cut behind them to take note of the laptop and DVD cases conspicuously laying on top of the kitchen counter. It had been a nice run these past few years of marital bliss, but the truth had to come out eventually. They considered dropping the discs into the garbage disposal but it was too late now. They were thoroughly, decidedly busted.

“Alright if we make it a duet, do you promise not to tell Joey?” They pleaded. Rebecca wiggled her ankles next to them in preparation and Seto pulled up a stool to sit on for the performance. “You I can handle, maybe. But he’ll never — what are you doing?”

“Scheduling movie night for when he gets back on Monday.” Seto said plainly, looking up from his phone as he typed. “Home movies count, right?”

Duke reached to snatch the phone from Seto but even sitting down his mile-long arms kept the phone out of their reach. They gave up with a beleaguered groan that turned into a laugh when they felt Rebecca tugging on their shirt and they quickly joined in her tapping out the simple steps. 

If letting both of their equally obnoxious husbands in on their secret tap dancing past was the tradeoff for helping Rebecca bounce back from today’s melancholy, well they could think of a lot more embarrassing and less adorable feats. They made a mental note as they made their bows to Seto’s applause to google dance classes in the neighborhood later, just to see what was available. Dance Momo did have kind of a nice ring to it. 


End file.
